“Nobody puts baby in the corner” changes ever-so-slightly with fatherhood

Things change when you have a child. You begin to feel differently about a multitude of life’s experiences.

The entire world takes on new meaning and nuance.

Take Dirty Dancing.

Pre-fatherhood, I watched Patrick Swayze tell Jerry Orbach that “Nobody puts baby in the corner” and thought, “Hell yeah, Johnny Castle! You let that patronizing old fool have a piece of your mind! He doesn’t deserve Baby for a daughter! Damn straight nobody puts Baby in a corner!”

Now that I’m a father, things have changed slightly.

Now I watch Patrick Swayze tell Jerry Orbach that “Nobody puts baby in the corner” and think, “If I were Jerry Orbach’s character, I would jam my steak knife into that greaser’s gut and twist it until he was dead at my feet. No one, and I mean no one, is going to tell me how to raise my daughter, let alone take her out from under my wing with a stupid line like that. Especially not some summer camp male slut dance instructor. Over my dead body, Johnny Castle.  Over my dead body, you pathetic piece of dance hall trash.”

See the difference?

Fatherhood changes everything.